Old history pictures

Lorna Demidoff became interested in sled dogs while married to Moseley Taylor, who was the owner of the Boston Globe. Moseley purchased Lorna her first Siberians from the Seeleys, along with a dog named Tuck who was from the Mike Cooney/John "Iron Man" Johnson kennels in Alaska. Lorna became the first woman to win a race, finished her first champion (and first Group placer in the breed) in 1939, her first home-bred champion in 1941, and became, for the next three decades, the most prominent breeder of Siberian show dogs and breeding stock in the United States. Having divorced Mosely Taylor, she married Nicholas Demidoff, an emigre Russian prince, in 1941, becoming affectionately known as "the Princess." She fielded competitive teams through the 1950s and continued to drive her pleasure teams until well into her sixties. Her animals may have won more National Specialties than anyone else's before or since, and her Ch. Monadnock's Pando was possibly the most influential stud dog in the history of the breed. (When he was shown for the last time in the Veterans' Class at age 14 in Philadelphia, he not only received a standing ovation, but was discovered to be the progenitor of 100 of the 103 Siberians shown that day!) With his son, Ch. Monadnock's King, he won every major Best Brace in Show award for which they competed, and virtually spearheaded the black-and-white, blue-eyed fashion in the breed. Lorna once told me the author said she regretted having started "that craze" and also regretted letting Pando be used at stud on so many bitches. "But, you know' she said, "there were so many shy dogs in those days that if the bitch had a good temperament I usually accepted her for breeding." I think this is a very telling comment because, although she was known (quite rightly) for establishing consistency of type in the breed, her greatest gift was probably in the area of making more consistent the confident, friendly temperament we so much value in the Siberian today. Until her death in 1993, Lorna Dernidoff remained the "premier" breeder- judge of Siberians and one of America's most respected Group and Best in Show judges. 

The Last of the Imports, and AKC Recognition

Seppala stayed on in New England for a time, winning pretty much all the races and planting the seeds of the future Siberian Husky that would come to be officially recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1930.A partnership with Seppala and a woman named Elizabeth Ricker, Elizabeth had imported the last Siberians to come directly from Siberia and was an avid sled dog enthusiast, Nine of these were selected by the renowned expert on Siberian dogs, Olaf Swenson, but the ship that brought them to the United States became stranded in ice for the winter, and only four survived. Kreevanka and Tserko were the most influential of these males, who, along with the legendary Togo, his father Suggen, and the beautiful leader Fritz, probably figure in the pedigree of every Siberian Husky living-if one were to trace back that far.

The dogs developed by the Seppala-Ricker partnership eventually went to Harry Wheeler of St. Jovite, Canada, in 1932 when Elizabeth Ricker married the explorer Kaare Nansen and gave up her dogs. From these, in turn, came the animals that would form the three most influential kennels in the establishment and development of the AKC-recognized Siberian Husky: Milton and Eva Seeley's Chinook Kennels, Nicholas and Lorna Demidoff's Monadnock Kennels, and Mrs. Marie Lee Frothingham's Gold River Kennels.

Photo: Elizabeth Ricker (later Nansen) with a group of famous early sled dogs. In the fore ground. from left. are Sugruk, Mukluk and Sapsuk ii. The dogs in the background are Jean (left) and Sepp I. (Warren Rover) Visa mindreAlla reaktioner:8Елена Поцелуева och 7 andra21GillaKommenteraDela